Professor Antoni Plasència has served as director general of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health since October 2014. He is also a medical consultant in international health at the Hospital Clinic and visiting professor at the University of Barcelona. He leads a team of 385 faculty and staff actively engaged in improving global health through excellence in research, knowledge translation, and its application. He teaches and co-directs the Master in Global Health program at the University of Barcelona and participates in the Master of Public Health program at the University of Pompeu Fabra and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His work is mainly dedicated to leadership roles in epidemiology and public health and combining practice, research, teaching, and management activities with longstanding involvement activities in prestigious institutions. With a broad biological, social, and environmental perspective on health determinants, Professor Plasència’s areas of expertise include key global health areas such as health systems and public health services, evaluation and management, public surveillance, health inequalities, infectious diseases, maternal and child health, and injuries and environmental health.

He was previously associate professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, as well as an associate in the Health Policy and Management Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He previously served as deputy director of the Center for International Health Research at Hospital Clinic at the University of Barcelona and as director general of Public Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, where he was instrumental in the enactment of the Public Health Law of Catalonia and the creation of the Public Health Agency of Catalonia. Previously, he was director of the Municipal Institute of Health – Public Health Agency of Barcelona. Professor Plasència earned a master’s degree in Public Health from Yale University, a Medical degree from the University of Barcelona, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.